Breakdown of the State of the Union Address
- Don Juice
- Feb 7, 2018
- 5 min read
Over the weekend I watched and analysed President Trump’s State of the Union Address and I broke it down to 6 major policies that I think need to be addressed in a little more detail. The economy, healthcare, immigration, trade, infrastructure and National security were the six that I felt needed to be talked about. I also included taxes, unemployment, the stock market, foreign policy , and national security as a little bonus.
Economy
Trump touted creating 2.4 million jobs which is true and that the black unemployment rate stands at the lowest point on record and this is true too but I want to put that further into perspective.
As you can see from the graph unemployment has been on the downward slide since Obama’s presidency, and that is something that should be pointed out. The President also talked about the growth in the stock markets by touting its 8 trillion dollars in value which can't argued isn't real, however, I must point out the top 10% owns 80% of all stocks and the bottom 80% owns only 8% of stocks. Of course rich people will own more stocks, but the point is when presidents tout this, those are the people who are benefiting the most because the stock market doesn’t motivate corporations to pay livable wages to their employees as you can see. Talk about taxation included Trump obviously bragging about the business tax rate being slashed from 35% to 21% and the tax cuts, bonuses and raises that some major companies are giving to its employees and middle class families are receiving. Two things to point out here, number one, the tax cuts for individual middle class families will expire in 10 years at which time the rates will begin to increase. While the corporate tax cuts will remain permanent. Second, the bonuses that are being given out by these major corporations could have been done before this tax cut. For an example, AT&T is one company who has given out bonuses which by the way were negotiated through unions but AT&T is worth $200 billion dollars. You mean to tell me they need $300-500 billion more in revenue before they are able to increase wages or give out bonuses? I’ll let you answer that one.
Infrastructure
When talking about the countries infrastructure Trump stated he wants to see increased funding and significant improvements get done and brought up the fact and visual that we built the Empire State Building in one year but for some reason we have crumbling roads. Now, I actually like this plan in theory because we desperately need this, but, the catch is that the project will be partnered with private companies. This means for profit corporations will benefit the most from the project meaning there will be a price for doing it. For example, if Goldman Sachs take over the tolls (like they did in Indiana) they can reap millions and that means raising toll fees whenever they want. Mike Pence supported projects like this when he was governor of Indiana and Goldman Sachs lobbyist are scattered throughout the Trump administration so I’m just itching to know as to how this plan came about.
Trade
Trump said “America has also finally turned the page on decade’s of unfair trade deals that sacrificed our prosperity and shipped away our companies, our jobs and our nation's wealth.” and that he will negotiate better trade deals than the current ones. We'll have to wait and see if this promise is kept because according to previous negotiations on NAFTA things looks pretty similar to the TPP by borrowing provisions. The carrier deal he paraded around as a teaser of the great things to come also as of now doesn’t look too promising considering the fact that people are still being laid off and the workers are still not too happy.
Healthcare
Trump bragged about repealing the individual mandate which many applauded and will by the way reduce federal deficits by about $338 billion over the 2018–2027 period but at the same time will increase the number of uninsured people by 4 million in 2019 and 13 million in 2027. He also pointed out that he wants to lower the prices of prescription drugs like other countries. This is wonderful because Bernie had a bill last year tackling this issue but Trump was quiet on it so if this is truly on his priority list then I’m pretty sure he will tweet out in support of any other Bernie drug bills in the future.
National Security
My favorite part of the address National security, Trump touted taking territory from ISIS and having them on the run. However, ISIS has been on the run and losing consecutively thanks to Obama’s plan that is still being used by Trump. The only difference between Trump and Obama is Trump has dropped more bombs on ISIS by alleviating the rules of engagement, but supporting local forces and taking out leadership in raids is something the previous administration put together and I bring this up not to take credit from Trump but to show how he is using Obama’s plan but bashed him on the campaign trail for having a failed strategy. He is also keeping Gitmo open which should be closed based off of the rampant corruption and torture that went on and the fact that we don’t need this facility open because when you fight against something like “terrorism” and declare that the terrorist are enemy combatants then when can they be released or on trial? This is not a conventional war that has an end like the wars in the past. This is the fight of ideas so it allows for endless pursuits. We have a justice system that can be used and has been used to prosecute terrorist before. President Trump also called on Congress to address the flaws in the nuclear deal with Iran even though it currently is working because Iran is nowhere near developing nuclear weapons, and there was the occasional warmongering while talking about North Korea.
Immigration
This was the policy talking point that many were watching for and Trump laid out 4 pillars for immigration which are, a pathway for the DACA recipients to gain citenzship, funding for the wall, the end of the lottery merit based system, and limit the number of immediate family members that can be sponsored. The first one is fantastic but the other three are unnecessary in my opinion. The wall is ineffective for two reasons as pointed out by Timothy H. Kistner who served as confidential assistant to the Department of Homeland Security’s general counsel and as special assistant to the director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. This is because drug distributors use ports for importation more than the border and they use tunneling networks to deal with barriers, and as far as illegal immigration (which has decreased overtime predating Trump surprisingly) most illegal immigrants overstay their visas bypassing the wall effectively. A merit like system is already in place because they must have completed at least a high school education or at least two years of work experience in an occupation which requires at least two other years of training or experience. And there are already limitations on family by law because a citizen can only file for a Spouse, Son, daughter, Parent, Brother or sister and a resident can only file for Spouse, Unmarried son or daughter.
So that is my breakdown of Trump’s State of the Union Address. There were other things that occurred like his pointing out of certain individuals to praise in the stands which was honorable and pleasant but the policy is what I care about.
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